Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 October 1937 — Page 16
PAGE 16
The Indianapolis Times
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LUDWELL DENNY Editor
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ROY W. HOWARD President
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FRIDAY, OCT. 8, 1937
OUR NEW DEAL INVENTORY N the comfortable days of Calvin Coolidge a stick of type would have sufficed to tell the story of all the new activities of the Federal Government. But if you have been reading the series, “The New Deal—An Itemized Inventory,” which has been running in The Times the last five days, you will readily agree that these times are different. Five correspondents of the Secripps-Howard Washington Bureau, each a specialist in his field, were assigned to write this review of the Roosevelt Administration, to assay its accomplishments and mistakes, to chart its trends. They touched only the high spots, yet their composite product ran into thousands of words. » 2 x = ” » UR country and our Government have come a long way since the dark hours of March, 1933, when Franklin Roosevelt assumed command of a disorganized and demoralized nation. Yet, under the program which the New Deal has mapped out, we still have a long way to go. The accomplishments have been so great that the mistakes, while many and large, seem small. But it is not as much the past as the future which interests most Americans. Our primary concern is whether the New Deal is going to arrive at ils charted destination. The business picture, as painted by Ruth Finney, is on the whole, a cheerful one. Despite a few recessions here and there, business continues on the up and up. But there is no discounting the uncertainties which today cloud the horizon, uncertainties that are largely of the Government’s making—concerning which we shall say more later. And surely the progress in the field of agriculture, as told by Daniel M. Kidney, is noteworthy — foreclosures checked, revived rural purchasing power which is creating profits and jobs in the industries of the cities. But here, too, are uncertainties. For one of these uncertainties the Supreme Court is to blame; its AAA decision has raised doubts of the Government capacity to help the farmers protect themselves against bankrupting surpluses. But there is another uncertainty, Government-made, of which we shall say more later. Perhaps in no other sphere has the New Deal been more distinet from the old than in the field of human relations and human rights—the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively, their right to some measure of security against unemployment and old age, their right not to starve amidst plenty. The story told by Herbert Little of how the Government under the New Deal has undertaken to establish and enforce those rights is a thrilling one. But here, too, all has not been progress. Labor has greater independence and greater dignity, but the greater sense of responsibility which must necessarily go with increased power has yet to be developed. And as for the relief which a generous Government has given—it all has been provided on borrowed money, a fact which also bears on the integrity of social security. And of that we shall say more later. William Philip Simms’ review of our Government's relationship with the rest of the world is one of the brightest of all New Deal chapters. The role of “good neighbor” has been well played and well rewarded. But here, too, it has to be remembered that a good neighbor must remain forever unquestionably solvent.
= » » ” ” » NY it is that every aspiration, every promise of the New ness.
Deal, depends upon the Government's financial soundAnd that is why we consider the article written by Marshall McNeil, on the New Deal's fiscal affairs, the one which bears more importantly than all others on the New Deal’s future. For the New Deal is not something which we want to see pass when Franklin Roosevelt leaves office, Seven successive annual deficits have increased the public debt from around 16 billion dollars to around 37 billions. Four and one-half years of the New Deal have added approximately 17 billions. The only alarming thing about this is that, despite the great tide of recovery, the increase has not stopped. Yet it is essential to the future of the New Deal, not only that the rise of the debt be halted, but also that the debt be reduced speedily. Until that 1s done, uncertainties will continue to hinder and harass business. And uncertainties will continue to plague agriculture, for farmers depend for their welfare not only on the prices of the things they sell, but also on the prices of the things they buy—and if the debt gets out of bounds, inflationary results likewise will throw prices out of bounds. On price stability also depends the value of workers’ wages, and the integrity of workers’ “social security.” Nor is it merely a domestic worry. For our position in the family of nations depends upon our ability to assert and enforce our rights. That means our ability to defend ourselves under any circumstance that might arise. And a Government that has exhausted its credit is in no position to defend itself.
“THERE ARE NO WORDS”
THE anguish of women whose men are marched off to war is usually silent because human language lacks words to describe the cruelty of it all. Empress Nagako of Japan, however, tried to utter the unutterable in a little poem she penned for consolation of the families of Japanese soldiers now at their bloody work in China. She wrote:
“There are no words “With which to console families “Who live in worry “Over sons and fathers at the front.”
True, there are only tears and sighs and dumb bewilderment. But who would even try to comment upon a “war” that not only makes widows and orphans of women and children but mangles and kills these innocents along with the combatants? For such a “war” there are, indeed,
. ho words. :
( THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
FRIDAY, OCT. 8, 1937
They Must March Together for Labor—By Rodger
Fair Enough
By Westbrook Pegler
La Guardia's Opponent for Mayer, Jerry Mahoney, Handicapped by Lack of Issues on Which to Fight.
EW YORK, Oct. 8 —This is a funny mayoralty campaign we are having in New York. Jerry Mahoney is running against Fiorello La Guardia, the best Mayor the greater
city has ever had. The Little Flower has been a swell Mayor, the better, of course by contrast with Jimmy Waiker and his successor, John O’Brien, who said, when reporters
asked him whom he was going to name Police Commissioner, “I don’t know; they haven't told me yet.” John was honest anyway. The \ boys at Tammany Hall were going ps to name the Police Commissioner - i Sl and he knew that everyone knew % & it and was too innocent to pre- X tend otherwise. John is now retired on a pension of about $12,000 a year, pavable to Mrs. O'Brien, too, as long as she lives, should she survive him, and, but for the terrible squawk of indignation recentiy, Jimmy Walker, too, would have been eligible for a similar pension on similar terms. The Walker thing came along just in time to remind the citizens of the Walker Administration in all its picturesque details and of the Tammany tin box mess which preceded La Guardia, The uproar revived the whole business for several weeks and as it turned out, the attempt to take care of Jimmy was all water on La Guardia’s wheel. The bovs found themselves actually making a campaign for the man they wanted to lick and ali for the sake of a $12,000 pension.
A it,
Mr. Pegler
” » » T was reported that, “in gratitude” for his readmittance to public service, Jimmy would go out and do some campaigning for Jerry Mahoney. But very soon, in view of the reaction to his appointment
to a job, it became apparent that any speeches by him |
would be more a burden than a help to Jerry. Since
then they have been unloading Mr. Walker, Mr. Mahoney was a distinguished athlete in his day, but as a politician and statesman in American athletic affairs he erred seriously last year when he opposed American participation in the Nazi Olympics. His motives were good, but if his motion had carried Adolf Hitler would have been spared the humiliation of fleeing from his Caesar's throne every time an American: Negro won an event,
= » ” ITLER refused to admit that any Negro boy could defeat any Aryan and, in order to avoid
the necessity of congratulating Negro winners on the
American team, he engaged in more sprints than all his Arvan athletes combined, ducking up the aisle to a hiding place. Up to now, Jerry has had no more to say against the Littie Flower than that he is sympathetic with the Communists, but the Little Flower can point to the time when he rushed a gang of Communists out of the City Hall, in person, for exploiting the suffer=ings of the poor whom he was trying to help. And he can point also to the support of the Times and the royalist Herald-Tribune, strange company for a Bolshevik. If only some one could get a cop indicted for accepting a free cigar that might give Jerry a police scandal to work on, but there just isn't anything so far. As for the Little Flower, he is doing all right. And, for dirt, with the Walker thing refreshed in the public mind, all he needs is one word, “Tammany.”
Exiled—From Pittsburgh Press
A Sug
The Hoosier Forum
I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.—Voltaire.
EASTERN STAR CHAIRMAN
(Times readers are invited
dictatorship of an elected President
| THANKS CITY OFFICIALS : . . whose powers can be withdrawn to Srpress their YioWs n whenever the voters decide he has | By Harty E. Emmons, General Chairman these columns, religious cons misused them : of Arrangements, Order of the Eastern 4 . BD . roversies excluded. Make The people should be concerned
Star
Will you allow me space to thank {the City officials of Indianapolis, | also the Police Department and the | Fire Department for their co-oper- | ation and for the courteous atten-
your letter short, so all can have a chance. be signed, but names will be withheld on request.)
about private control of public opinion by means of privately owned newspapers and broadcasting stations which are owned either by newspapers or by public utilities
Letters must
| tion in handling the 22d Triennial
subject to the dictation of holding companies.
| Sssembly of the General Grand | Onaptet Order of the Eastern Star. I heard nothing but praise for | them from the delegates assembled ( here and feel we have done a real service in selling Indianapolis to the delegates. I particularly want to cail the attention to the fine way the Police Department handled the taxi cab situation. Our group, more than any other ever assembled in Indianapolis, used taxicab transportation. As far as I have been able to learn, there was only one minor | accident which is a fine record of the care and foresight of the drivers themselves. | Personally, I have a much higher | regard for the taxicab drivers as a body than I had before our conven- { tion. They were recipients of many { words of high praise for handling the huge crowds without a single complaint of overcharge or discourtesy. I want also to thank the press of (ndianapolis for their fair and impartial reports of all our activities. Their accurate information was of material help in entertaining our visitors. I extend my appreciation ‘and thanks to the committee chairmen and members, the volunteer workers and the efficient work of the Red Cross and nursing units. ” ” ” SAYS MANY SENATORS FAVORED KLAN | By L. S. Todd, Tipton. You cannot pick up a newspaper without seeing that Senator Hugo Black holds a life membership in the Ku-Klux Klan. A life membership has a two-fold interpretation like the following: I saw a squirrel running through the woods; run-
present at Elwood at a Klan demonstration when it was estimated | there were 10 thousand persons wearing sheets and pillowcase bonnets, Since there has been so much political commotion agitated for an investigation of Hugo Black's Klan activities, I offer a motion that the investigation be extended to all Senators and see how many others have exercised pro-Klan activities. My guess is there will not be enough left for a quorum. If Hugh Black wanted in any way to favor the Klan in the Supreme Court proceedings, it could be of no force, as there would be eight dissenting opinions. The outstanding facts of this whole controversy are that other Senators wanted the appointment so they could sit on the wool sack of the Supreme Court bench, and | they muddy the water for Roosevelt and Hugo Black, | Now the greater enemy to the lib- | erties of the people is the Lawyers | and Bar Associations . . . Section 4, Article 2 of the United | States Constitution: “The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on impeach- { ment for, and conviction of treason, | bribery, or other high crime and misdemeanors.” I doubt very much [if such a charge could be sustained against Mr. Black.
* #8 | PRIVATE CONTROL OF OPINION SEEN PERILOUS By W. Scott Taylor
The people should be worrving | more about the private dictatorship of a controlled press than the public
A PRAYER
They should be interested in the fact that the Government has become an object of charity in the matter of time on the radio. It should be a public authority, not a private one, that determines how much radio time is needed .to reply | to the “storms of comment” that
coast, Need for Defense
It is in the public interest that every Government official from the highest to the lowest has the fullest opportunity to defend himself on the radio when attacked, in the manner and form of the Government's own choosing. When the private storm-makers {are all obviously wired up to the same private button, there should be a public button to match; then one blast can succeed another of more equal intensity and duration. The voter will then have a chance to hear both sides of the question fully and freely expressed, and we can return to the old form of Government by public elections, instead of depending entirely on editorials, letters and telegrams that might be signed in time of need with the names in the phone book.
Cites Need for Control
The necessity of some public control over at least one means by which the Government can communicate with the people was illustrated by the attempt of, a pub-lic-utility-broadcaster to destroy the effect of the speech of Senator Black. Under the pretense of news reporting, he sought to discolor, distort and discredit the Senator's defense of himself. It is time that the Government reconsider the whole subject of radio broadcasting in the public interest.
ning through the woods I saw a squirrel, Who was running, the squirrel or I? You can place a
double interpretation on the phrase “a life member.” It could mean the life of the Klan or the life of the person holding the membership. In either event it would be like the {fellow “drunk and all dressed up and no place to go” as the Klan was fathered by Republicans and at this time there is neither Klan nor Republican Party. Senator Black was appointed Supreme Court Justice and the ap- | pointment confirmed by the Senate | before his colleagues discovered that | he held a life membership in the | Ku-Klux Klan. They sure are a | dumb set of birds. I have no antipathy for Hugo Black for being a Klansmen, as there was a time in Tipton County when, had I discarded all members of the KuKlux Klan from my friends I would have been almost friendless, as it seemed everybody belonged. I was
gold—
angry;
By SUE ELLEN PRICE Dear God, we pray for wisdom Our blundering steps to guide, We'll air our secret vices From Thee we cannot hide,
Dear God, teach us to be like Thee The friendships that Thou had Were not begot by fashion, Or some unsightly fad.
Thy preaching’s were not lust for
Thy presence had no price, Thou called them all into the fold, With Thine own immortal device.
DAILY THOUGHT
Be not hasty in thy spirit to be for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.—Ecclesiastes 7:9.
» ROOSEVELT'S DREAM OF CHEAP POWER PRAISED By M. L.
President Roosevelt's dream, the core of his political philosophy for attaining the more abundant life for the masses of Americans, is cheap hydroelectric power. Power interests have fought and continur
with every weapon comma hounds provide. But in the end I feel America will get cheap power. It may take years and years, but history has demonstrated again and again that no good idea is ever lost. Some day and some way it bears fruit. I hope it is in our day. Tennyson had the idea when he said:
high-priced and money can
NGER begins in foily and ends | “Our echoes roll from soul to soul in repentance — Pythagoras,
! And grow forever and forever.”
to fight the realization of that idea |
certain |
sweep the country from coast to |
ee —
It Seems to Me
' By Heywood Broun
Duke of Windsor, Upon Coming to , America, Will Find the Risks Are As Entangling as Those at Home.
EW YORK, Oct. 8—It is a rather strange tour which the Duke of Windsor has mapped for himself. As I understand it, he is going to study trade unionism in Germany, because it no longer exists in that country, and coming here to study Federal / housing, since it really hasn't started. And when he leaves our shores I assume that the Duke will go to Japan to make a first-hand study of the progress of pacificism. However, I see no reason why the young man should not be warmly welcomed by Americans. He is certainly a far more enzaging visitor than some of the sprigs - of fascism who have lately honored us with their presence. David at the very least can walk * down the gangplank and nct (nd it necessary to be secretly spii od away in a cutter. To be sure, he will have to face a number of reporters and cameramen, but it is just barely possible that he is mnving out of complete retirement because he has a nostalgic longing to be asked once again, “And what do you think of our skyline?” I think the ship newsmen © should spare him the other familiar query. It seems to me that the Duke has already answered the question which goes, “What do you think of American women?” . » ” on B* whether Windsor actually makes a painstaking sociological tour or enters into more frivolous pursuits, he has already gained one of his . objectives. He has said enough to annoy his brother, the King, and His Majesty's ministers. It may be remembered that the abdication moment actually stemmed from the speech which Windsor made in South Wales while he was still monarch. It didn't really sound very revolutionary. All the King said about the distressed area was “Something must be * done.” But even this mild note of sympathy jarred 9 the ears of the Cabinet. Such words coming from the lips of a king were regarded as not only heretical but almost indecent. As a matter of fact, the Duke may find that there are certain circles here which will be very hot and bothered if he happens to express any sympathy whatsoever for the underprivileged. If he pals around again with his old crowd of Long Island buddies he will do well to be discreet. I trust he would not like to see a solid hedge of raised eyebrows in all the mansions along the North Shore.
Mr. Broun
» n un ND for the sake of peace in the Empire he should ® avoid any phrase which will give a Wall Street broker an opportunity to say shaivoly, “Young man, don't you realize that you're a traitor to your class?” Possibly the safest thing for the distinguished visitor to do will be to emulate the formula adopted by another gentleman who was but recently a center of news interest. And when the ship news battalion » advances at double quick. each one eager to pull the one about the skyline, Windsor may be wise in an=swering no more than, “Nothing to say.” I'm assuming, of course, that David Windsor doesn't want to run the risk of having William Green or Jeremiah T.
Mahoney call him Communistic. And the only cer= tain safety lies in silence,
General Hugh Johnson Says—
President Roosevelt Charged With Practicing Magic in Face of Blunder; Switched National Attention From Black Episode to ‘Foreign Affairs.
RX JASHINGTON, Oct. 8-—Potemkin, a minister of Catherine of Russia, was one of the outstanding showmen in history. He undertook to remake the whole Crimea—building roads and dams and even cities He made such glowing reports to the Empress about how perfect everything was that she decided to go there and see for herself. Things were far from perfect. Some terrible things showing the failure of parts of his ambitious program happened right under Catherine’s nose as she passed along—regular chambers of horrors could have been seen, but Catherine never saw them. Everything like that happened. Potemkin pulled a glittering show on the other side of the road. Once he even had workmen put up a fake but magnificent model village, with only one side to the houses. Potemkin got away with it. He had a cynical con-
tempt for the doubtful intelligence of people in mass, | A sufficiently clever expert in this art can literally |
get away wtih anything. ” ” ”
is one of the oldest tricks of the magician. He has the eyes of a whole audience fixed on the glittering balls he keeps in the air on one side of the stage and thus completely conceals what is going on D8 le other side to produce a seemingly impossible e .
Something exactly like that has been going on here
for a month. The chamber of horrors was the Sue preme Court. The terrible thing was that the President had made a major blunder. So while the inevitable result of that blunder went
on to its sickening end and the greatest court in the world was in the actual process of being stripped of its dignity, the master of show stepped into a 10-car train and pulled a Potemkin all the way froth the Mississippi to the Coast and back again, winding up in Chicago with the most spectacular burst of fireworks in the whole magic kit—defiance to the forces of evil in the gangster nations everywhere in the world and the ominous rumble of the distant drums of war,
T was magnificent. The ears of the calamity howlers and stayv-at-homes were slapped down, Doubting Thomas was trotted out—but not permitted to put his fingers in any bloody wound. Economic royalists were kicked about like footballs in punting practice. Unprecedented promises were made of better bread and new and more magnificent cir cuses. It was one uninterrupted tour of triumph winding up in a blazing glory—and in the meantime the new Justice is cemented in his seat. You've got this to say for the President—whatever he does, whether good or bad, is superlatively so. The Court chapter was as bad as it could be and, as an
act of n, this was the most magnificent,
The Washington Merry-Go-Round :
Secretary of State Hull Ballyhoos Trade Treaties, but Signs None; Quarantine’ Holds Up Four Giraffes Here From Africa for National Zoo.
By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen
ASHINGTON, Oct. 8-—State Department officials are keeping quiet about it, but although Secretary Hull seems to live, eat and breathe trade treaties, he has done absolutely nothing about them in the last nine months. Congress has extended his power to negotiate treaties. Various diplomats have been pounding on his door demanding treaties. But Mr. Hull has done nothing. He has hired a public relations expert to ballyhoo the importance of trade treaties. He has made speeches regarding them. But the fact is the last trade treaty he negotiated was a little agreement with Salvador signed in February.
” ” »
OT much appeared in the press about it, but one undercover campaign which Western Senators staged against Mr. Roosevelt last session was to block ratification of his Argentine Sanitary Convention, which permitted meat from areas not infected with hoof-and-mouth disease to be imported into the United States, A strict embargo is maintained against all meat or cattle from infected countries, and opposition to the modifying treaty was so strong that it was pigeonholed.
Continuing this strict policy, the Department of
‘ Agriculture has now quarantined the four prize giraffes which Director William Mann has just brought from Africa for the National Zoo in Washington. .
Although they will be confined to a few square feet in the zoo, and never come in contact with American cattle, they are being quarantined for hoof-and-mouth diseases. First they were quarantined 60 days at Khar- } tum, Egypt, and now are held for 15 days at Athenia, N. J.
“However,” observed Zoo Director Mann, “I hope they will soon be in Washington and will "ess their , home with a few young ones long before the Argentine Sanitary Convention is ratified.” ” ” n TRIP to Greenbelt, Md, Resettlement's suburban housing project near Washington, is worth it just to take in the color scheme. About half of the houses are whitewashed and have a broad, colored band
painted across the front of the second story. Doors 3 and window-frames are painted to harmonize with + i= the stripes. The rooms downstairs are generally painted a flat \
gray, but some of the bedrooms are tinted in blinding greens, blues and yellows. The name by which Greenbelt may be known to posterity is “Tugwelltown,” for the famous Brain Truster who conceived and headed the Resettlement Administration,
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